


starbright

by horationelson



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Ficlet, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Stargazing, canon compliant up through the year break, small amounts of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 10:16:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12056895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/horationelson/pseuds/horationelson
Summary: Percy's feeling punchy and restless and in love.





	starbright

**Author's Note:**

> I figured I needed to make good on my constant screaming about Percy/Vex by writing a fic. I don't really like said fic, but it's been sitting in my drafts for literal weeks and there's no time like the hurricane-induced-seclusion of the present. I didn't have a beta because I was eager to get rid of it, and the characterization is probably soooo off -- sorry!

Percy woke when his hand collided with a cold pillow. That was unexpected; he hadn’t hoped to smack Vex in the face, but he’d also expected her to be there next to him. He’d once again grown accustomed to being the only one in bed (though it’d taken a lot longer to get used to than sleeping with someone else had) because of Vex’s occasional diplomatic trips to Syngorn. Tonight, though, was not one of those lonely nights -- they’d gone to bed together in the castle, exhausted and content.

“Dear?” he called experimentally, reaching for his glasses on the table beside the bed. Percy put them on and blinked, eyes adjusting slowly to the darkness. The only light in the room filtered in softly through the dark curtains, a dim moonlight afforded by their high vantage point in the castle. (In the early days of staying at Vex’s house, he’d been forced to bring his own candles into the bedroom; she walked around in the darkness quite easily.) “Vex?”

There was no answer, unsurprisingly. He looked down toward where she should have slept: sheets drawn back as if someone had left, though not obviously hastily so. It couldn’t have been too long after they’d gone to bed, perhaps close to midnight. Percy leaned across the bed, blood rushing to his head. Her slippers were gone as well, and, as he sat back up, he noticed the chairback that usually held her fur-lined robe was also empty. She wasn’t walking through the castle naked (this time), at least!

They’d all decided to keep their earrings during their much needed time off, though they’d not been much use, what with Vox Machina scattered to the winds. Still, it was nice to have the connection. As far as Percy knew, Tary was the only one in town at the moment, and out of range of the charm. It didn’t matter, though, because their nightly custom meant he found Vex’s earring on the bedside table next to his own.

“Trinket?” Percy tried. It was still sometimes hard to believe he’d reached a point in his life where he had what amounted to a literal bear of a child, yet here they were. (Keyleth had recently mentioned, offhandedly, that Trinket would make a great babysitter. Percy’s ears had gone red instantly.) He didn’t hear Trinket’s breathing or any of his other noises. The bear was gone too.

Though he’d not admit it -- and especially not to her -- this did put Percy’s mind at ease. They’d gone somewhere together, that was all. Percy knew Vex could look after herself, and quite well, too. She was better at it than he was. Still, he couldn’t help but worry sometimes, even here in the safety of their home. They’d all been through so much, and would continue to do so before long, but for now, they were happy. Percy just couldn’t help being a pessimist. It’d gotten him this far.

Seeing no point in trying to sleep again with her gone, Percy pulled himself out of bed. Unlike Vex, he tended to sleep in at least trousers; how she’d grown so comfortable with the Whitestone cold so quickly he’d never know, but he’d also not look a gift horse in the mouth. Sliding stocking feet into his own slippers, Percy also shrugged on his robe and closed it tightly across his chest. He grabbed a half-burned candle from his desk and lit it before slipping out into the hallway on his search for Vex.

*

The castle was quiet and cool at such an hour. With Grog and Scanlan gone, one of them much more permanently, there was less racket in the middle of the night. It was nice, but it was strange, too. Percy had always been fond of quiet, especially as a boy, when he would lock himself away with his books and his inventions. He loved Whitestone, loved the domesticity he’d found with Vex. But the hubbub of life as an adventurer had settled nicely into his bones. The quiet was beginning to make him feel restless.

Not far down the hall from their bedroom, Percy noticed an open door, leading up a staircase to a tower. The door wasn’t open all the way -- perhaps just wide enough for a bear to eke through. On warm afternoons when he was busy with paperwork, Vex sometimes not-so-gently requested they break away “for ten minutes, Percival” and have a meal up on the tower roof, in the shadow of the parapets and under the sky. That was surely where she’d escaped to tonight.

He went quickly and quietly up the staircase and pushed open the thick wooden door that led to the rooftop. It was Trinket he saw first, curled up in a ball with his back to the door. Comfortable. After a few seconds, Percy also saw a thin, tanned hand, reaching from the far side of Trinket to scratch his back.

“I needed to get out for some air, that’s all,” Vex said, not moving to look at him. She’d always been far more perceptive than he was.

Though he didn’t realize it, a small smile edged its way across Percy’s face. He’d not been worried about her, per se, but, well. “I figured as much.” He closed the door and took a few steps toward the pair. “Thought I’d join you.” It wasn’t necessary to tell her that he couldn’t sleep. Percy figured she knew.

He hadn’t noticed a blanket missing from their bedroom, but she was wrapped in one, in addition to the robe. Maybe her southern blood hadn’t completely adjusted after all. Vex’s hair was down, black as the night surrounding them, and a flush bloomed across her cheeks like wildflowers. If someone had asked even five years ago where Percival de Rolo saw himself in the future, it certainly wouldn’t have been here and now. It wouldn’t be staring at the woman he loved (and her bear, dear gods), happy and relatively healthy. (He wouldn’t have anticipated having an honest-to-goodness ring for her hidden in his workshop, either, but that would be an adventure for another day.) Of course, Percy wasn’t thinking about this; he was far too focused on her smile.

“Gotten cozy, haven’t you?” he asked, bridging the distance and sitting on a relatively even patch of stone. The cold was a shock even to him, almost dropping the candle but catching it just in time. “You’re smart.” He liked smart, but she knew that by now. She knew so much about him that he didn’t even have to share; everyone in Vox Machina did, really, but Vex most of all.

Vex winked and crawled in his direction, the sultry look on her face definitely on purpose. She looked ridiculous, of course, dragging a blanket and wearing nothing more than a robe, but it was the thought that counted; his heart did an awkward skipped beat in his chest all the same.

She immediately found her place next to him, curled around his arm. “Are you all right?” Percy asked, voice soft and eyes focused on her. Vex could be very much like him, guarding emotions to protect those she cared about. He didn’t sense any of that now, but it didn’t hurt to ask.

“Mmm, of course, darling.” She smiled, candlelight and starshine casting a glow across her face. “Trinket had to use the little bears’ room, and then we came up here. We didn’t mean to wake you.”

Percy rolled his eyes exaggeratedly and Vex laughed; he didn’t pity the guard who found that mess, wherever it happened to be. The blanket was half-draped across Vex’s shoulders, so Percy took it off completely and put it behind them as a sort of pillow. Was it a ploy to get her to use him for warmth? Definitely yes. “We own two perfectly good beds, I’ll remind you, but would you like to lie here for a bit?” He patted the blanket and lay down, blinking against the darkness to adjust his eyes.

Her motion was much more graceful than his, as always, as she laid out as well. “Our beds aren’t going anywhere,” Vex reminded, adjusting her head against the blanket. As expected, she made sure to press herself against him, their feet knocking together playfully. “This is nice, Percy.”

“It is.” They sat in silence for a few tender moments, just being near each other. Of late, they’d had to work more and more to make these moments: Vex was out trying to befriend the render or hunting, he was working with Cassandra on business or crafting. They tried to spend as many nights together as possible, but quiet minutes on the castle roof were good too.

Vex exhaled and the breath curled away into the darkness. “The stars are beautiful tonight.”

“You know who else is beautiful?” She preened, shifting closer into his side, and Percy saw his opportunity. He really couldn’t help himself. “Trinket.”

The bear made a noise of acknowledgment just as Vex smacked Percy hard across the chest. Okay, he probably deserved that. He was less apt to think he deserved for her to climb on top of him, curtain of black hair obscuring his vision. Her weight was warm and familiar, and the kisses she gave him were unexpected but not unwelcome.

After a few seconds that didn't feel quite long enough, Percy felt Vex grin against his lips and break their embrace. Even his glasses weren’t useful at such close proximity, but he didn’t need them to know there was a devious glint in Vex’s eye. “Trinket is beautiful, though, aren’t you, Trinket?” she said airily. 

Vex rolled back into her previous position and held her hand out toward the bear. The bear made a noise Percy could only describe as a purr and scooted close enough so that Vex could scratch behind his ears. With her absence, Vex left the ties at the front of Percy’s robe undone and his pale chest exposed to the moonlight. Oh, she was good.

He grumbled good-naturedly and pulled the ties of his robe closed again; perhaps they could finish that later, when they weren’t on an exposed rooftop next to a bear. (Not that Vex would have minded continuing now, because she was somehow perfectly able to be both an exhibitionist and refined. Percy, on the other hand, couldn’t look at Pike for two days after she walked in on them less-than-clothed in the larder. “At least it wasn’t Grog, darling,” Vex had said, as if that made it any better.)

“Come back here, you.” Percy grabbed her elbow, tugging slightly to show that he missed her warmth. She patted Trinket on the nose gently before returning to him, both finding their supine stargazing positions once more.

Vex scoffed and flicked his arm playfully as she adjusted her position. The stone wasn’t meant for laying on, and the blanket wasn’t meant to be a pillow, but they were nothing if not resourceful. “Greedy thing, aren’t you!” If greed got him this life, Percy was glad to be greedy; Vex knew a bit about greed herself, after all.

He shrugged the shoulder closest to her, allowing Vex the opportunity to get more comfortable. “I know what I like, that’s all.” What he liked was being her next to her. It really was that simple.

Another temporary wave of seriousness washed over him then, his chest feeling so full of affection that Percy wasn’t certain it wouldn’t pop. "I love you, Vex," Percy said softly, nuzzling his lips into the side of her head for a tender kiss. He said quite a lot of things to quite a lot of people, but telling Vex he loved her was one of the easiest and truest statements he knew. Through all of this, through the dragons and death, he had that much. 

Vex hummed, snuggling further into his shoulder. Her calloused fingers drew light circles on his chest, content. This was what they were fighting for. "Absolutely madly, or so I hear."

He grinned, though he knew she couldn’t see it. It was probably better that way. "I'd not say madly," Percy teased, breathing in the scent of her: lavender from the bath, bakery flour, and the faint sharpness of gunpowder residue that had somehow become part of her, too. He’d always been snide, even as a child, but this desire to be so teasing was new. It must have been brought on by the sheer happiness he felt with her, the comfort of finally knowing they both belonged. Gods, what had he done to get so lucky after so long? 

She pulled herself up onto one elbow and glared at him, mock-offended and smiling and more beautiful than anything he'd ever seen. "You're such a liar, Percival de Rolo!"

He was.

**Author's Note:**

> I whine and make a lot of unintelligible noises on [tumblr](http://horationelson.tumblr.com).


End file.
